On July 31, Inova Loudoun Hospital CEO, Randy Kelley, announced that preservationist Paul Ziluca and ECHO's Karen Russell will be honored with the 2009 Loudoun Laurels at black-tie ceremonies at Lansdowne, September 16. They join Eugene Scheel, Childs Burden and Kim Hart as Loudoun Laureates, and were selected from more than 100 nominees submitted by the program's Founders' Committee.

"Karen Russell's work with ECHO in Loudoun County has spanned 32 years of dedication and exemplary service, and Paul Ziluca's commitment to historic preservation and the community's political infrastructure has set a standard of citizenship and stewardship that we should all attempt to follow." Inova's Kelley noted.

"Both exemplify the special character The Loudoun Laurels program was established to seek out, recognize and honor. Their stories will add immense breadth and depth to the new Loudoun Laurel Archives at the Thomas Balch Library, ensuring that future generations learn about the truly exceptional individuals who made Loudoun such a wonderful place to live and work."

Proceeds from the event honoring Russell and Ziluca will be dedicated to the support of Inova Loudoun's pediatric rehabilitation program, which helps children and their parents cope with developmental challenges from a variety of conditions, including autism, Down's syndrome, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder.

The 2009 Laurels for Lifetime Service will be awarded to retired Air Force Colonel and dedicated preservationist, Paul Ziluca. After a quarter century of military service, Zilucca has worked tirelessly for another 30 years to preserve the history and protect the character of Loudoun County.

Born in Greenwich, Connecticut, Ziluca graduated from Culver Military Academy in Indiana, received a BA in Government from Harvard, and completed an MS in Government Administration at The George Washington University.

A direct descendant of the Italian national hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Zilucca retired from the United States Air Force in 1979. His service abroad included tours in Japan, Germany, Vietnam and Greece, where, for his last three years of service, he commanded an air base near Athens. At the Pentagon, he was assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to the Assistant Secretary of Defense of Atomic Affairs.

In 1980 a refreshed and newly retired Colonel landed in the horse country of Northern Virginia, where he immediately . . . went to work. He helped build the Republican party in Loudoun, chaired campaigns for Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott York and Virginia State Delegate Joe May; served as Chairman of the Loudoun County Republican Party; and a member of the party's State Central Committee.

In1994, he began a transformative eight-year term of service as the Director of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF), the largest holder of conservation easements in the United States. While he was Director, the VOF increased its staff from one person to nineteen, its annual budget from $50,000 to more than $6,000,000, and more than tripled VOF acreage under conservation easement, including large parts of Loudoun County. He was an early, active, and a powerful source of funding in the movement to preserve and protect Aldie Mill, and in the creation and development of the Mosby Heritage Area Association.

And though he wore Air Force blue for well over a quarter century, his friends say he was always a cavalry officer at heart.

In 2000 the Board of Supervisors appointed him Chairman of the Citizens Committee for the preservation of the 1863 cavalry battlefields of Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville. He soon re-enlisted to help the Unison Preservation Society map and preserve the scenes of roiling skirmish and botched reconnaissance that led Lincoln to suggest alternative employment for General George McClellan.

Still in the saddle, he has been an active and key consultant in the development of the Loudoun County Heritage Plan. In January of this year, Ziluca helped gain county legislative approval to draft a new section of Loudoun's comprehensive plan that specifically protects battlefields. Once implemented, it promises to be a model for every other county in Virginia.

Ziluca's determination to preserve the historic beauty of Loudoun County has inspired many younger county leaders to enlarge their scope of community service and follow in his footsteps. Both Kim Hart and Childs Frick Burden, recipients of Loudoun Laurels in 2009, cited Paul Ziluca as one of the most important of the community leaders who has blazed a trail for them to follow, to protect and preserve.

The 2009 Laurels for Stewardship will be awarded to Lovettsville's Karen Russell, the Director of Marketing at Loudoun County's exemplary non-profit ECHO, Inc., headquartered in Leesburg.

For more than three decades Russel has worked with the County and with ECHO to make ensure that, truly, "Every Citizen Has Opportunities."

Loudoun Laurels to Ziluca and Russell

Born in Leesburg, to what she describes as a large, loving and incredibly supportive farming family, Russell ( a cousin of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Russell Baker) grew up in Lovettsville, married her high-school sweetheart, and soon became an army officer's wife.

When her late husband left the service, the family returned to Loudoun and she began work for the Loudoun Country Department of Human Services that would, in time, charge her life and the lives of many others.

By 1977 her work for the County had introduced her to ECHO, its people, and its program, and when an opportunity to join them presented itself, she became ECHO's bookkeeper, plus secretary, plus transportation manager.

For the next thirty years, whenever there was work to be done, or found, or supported, Karen was there, active in nearly every sector of ECHO's operations.

ECHO (Every Citizen Has Opportunities) is a Leesburg headquartered non-profit. It is well known for its standard-setting approaches to evaluate, train, and place adults coping with severe mental or physical disabilities in well-supported , productive, work environments.

ECHO's services include evaluation (working with its clients to see just what sorts of work, in what sorts of environments they can do); training, to not only do the work, but work well with others; and providing work, sometimes in the form of sheltered off-site employment, sometimes in the form of 6-person ECHO mobile work crews. ECHO's workers work in mailrooms, serve as groundskeepers, provide cleaning services, and deliver packages in nearly twenty different locations around Loudoun County.

Russell sees her teams as both "enhancing" a company's regular workforce and, through their ongoing track record of success, helping to fight prejudice against people with disabilities.

Over the years she has worked with ECHO, Russell has helped improve the lives of countless Loudoun citizens who, without ECHO's help, would not have had an opportunity to join the work force. By breaking down barrier to entry for these individuals, Karen has enlarged the sense of community and inclusion for workers at every company and enterprise that employs ECHO's clients. And by including ECHO clients in their workforces, employers and employees alike have gained a more powerful senses of community and of the worth of every individual.

September 16th Awards Ceremonies

The 2009 Loudoun Laurels will be presented September 16th at a black-tie dinner and ceremony at Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg. Proceeds from the evening will benefit Inova Loudoun Hospital's Pediatric Rehabilitation program.

The annual Loudoun Laurels Honors has become a high point of the philanthropic season with many leading companies and organizations already committed to this year's event.

Current sponsors include Loudoun Pathology Associates, P.L.C; IDI Companies/Leisure World of Virginia; the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation; Commonwealth Emergency Physicians, P.C and Fairfax Radiological Consultants, P.C.

There are many sponsorship and underwriting levels at the September 16th event including the $30,000 Cabinet designation, the $15,000 Council designation, the $10,000 Congress designation and the $6,000 Guild designation. Each of these designations includes Award Ceremony seats and a portfolio of associated branding and marketing benefits.

Individual seats at The 2009 Loudoun Laurel Award Ceremony and dinner are $350 and must be reserved in advance.

To reserve seats, and to confirm your underwriting, please contact Tracy Edmonds, Development Specialist for Special Events, at 703 858 8806 or email Tracy.Edmonds@Inova.org.